About this time the question of food supply began to agitate the minds of those responsible for the beleaguered town. For the first two months of the siege privation had not been felt, but in the despatches coming to hand about the middle of January there was evidence that provisions were beginning to run short. Oats were no longer given to horses, but saved for men; tinned milk and matches were taken charge of by the military authorities; and food generally began to be sparingly used. Before this the Kaffirs in the native quarter had eaten mules killed by the Boer guns. But apart from this shortening of rations a spirit of courage and determination filled the garrison. In the despatches from Major F.D. Baillie (war correspondent of the _Morning Post_) which got through about this time, a phrase occurs again and again which shows how bravely everybody was keeping up in Mafeking--"All is well." Certainly there was a desire on the part of somebody--whom one shrewdly suspects to have been the commandant himself--to make things as pleasant as possible. An agricultural show was held on January 21st and was a great success. On Sundays Baden-Powell organized concerts and musical entertainments, and himself appeared to delight perhaps the strangest audiences he had ever played to in his life. On one occasion he impersonated Paderewski in the first part of the performance, and a cockney in the second, winding up by playing "Home, Sweet Home" on a mouth-organ! One would like to have been present at that performance--despite the fact that Snyman and his Boers were still eager to seize the little town.